That is astounding that this research has been so refined! It seems logical to me that we would share some part of genetic material with this type of creature, as much as we do with any other. This kind of research really helps so many pieces we already have, to fit together more securely.

A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move to higher levels. ~ Albert Einstein

(09-02-2013 02:20 PM)kim Wrote: That is astounding that this research has been so refined! It seems logical to me that we would share some part of genetic material with this type of creature, as much as we do with any other. This kind of research really helps so many pieces we already have, to fit together more securely.

I appear to be much more thrilled by this than is perhaps reasonable, don't know why

"The team reconstructed the anatomy of the common ancestor by mapping the traits most strongly supported by the data. These suggest a two-horned uterus, a brain with a convoluted cerebral cortex and a placenta in which maternal blood came in close contact with membranes surrounding the fetus, as in humans."

"It has been suggested that primates diverged from other mammals well before the extinction of the dinosaurs, but our work using direct evidence from the fossil record tells a different story."

Plus, now when religionists start telling us indignantly that they are not descended from apes, we can tell them: "You got that right. We're actually descended from cute little rodents." Not sure whether they'll like this more, though

Thinking about it from a parasitic perspective, this is work has even greater scope of definition....

Within the smallpox genome there is a bit of "rodent-like" RNA which appears to have been deposited there more than 2 million years ago. This genetic information gives the virus the propensity to jump species... which somewhere along the line, it did - to man. However, a stable "rodent-like" species was only theorized to be around that early, to give the virus enough time to adapt a mechanism that would make it to be able to do that (jump species) by the time humans came along.

I bet some virus guys are grinning from ear to ear about this.

A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move to higher levels. ~ Albert Einstein